Life Cycle Analysis of Phenol - Formaldehyde Resins Substituted with Lignin

Abstract Phenol-formaldehyde (PF) resins are widely used in wood-based applications by reason of their heat and water resistance, high mechanical strength and chemical stability. Challenges regarding the environmental impact of petroleum-based resources lead to an increased interest of developing new resins where components such as phenol are replaced with renewable materials. This work evaluates the environmental impact of phenol-formaldehyde resins using an organosolv lignin as phenol replacement. Two life cycle analysis (LCA) boundaries (i.e. Cradle-to-Gate, Gate-to-Gate) are studied for PF resin having different substitution levels of phenol: 0%, 40% and 100%. The LC Soft (ICAS) is used for the LCA, which provides information regarding the carbon footprint (CF), fifteen environmental impact categories (e.g.: soil, water, air, human toxicity) and the life cycle inventory (LCI) contribution. The results show improvements for all environmental impact categories for the lignin substituted resins compared to PF resin, confirming the significant role of lignin. Moreover, the impact of the raw materials (Cradle-to-Gate) is significantly higher than the impact of the production process (Gate-to-Gate).